Who do you guys think I should be leaving on the bench offensively each night? I have trouble making that decision and I left 5 hr and 10-15 RBI on the bench last week. Any other thought, comments, suggestions would be thankful.

At this point I have to say Papi and replace him with Morales until he proves otherwise. If you removed his name and compared his stats you would not think twice. Also, he has had the luxury of Manny as his teammate and now with that gone and his age he is not the same player.

wallywojo wrote:At this point I have to say Papi and replace him with Morales until he proves otherwise. If you removed his name and compared his stats you would not think twice. Also, he has had the luxury of Manny as his teammate and now with that gone and his age he is not the same player.

I'd have to agree with wallywojo. Big Papi is horrible. Not only does that wrist of his still seem to be bothering him, but I also strongly suspect him of having used steroids in the past several years, only to stop once all the ruckus with Clemens and BALCO started up. I love Ortiz, though, and I really do hope that I'm wrong and that he can turn things around for his own sake as well as for that of your team.

I would be benching Fowler and Papi and playing Morales and Duncan. I'd go so far as even to say that you should drop Fowler and Hermida - Fowler's value was way overestimated following his 5 SB game, and he hardly has any since. He also K's waaaay too much to be a legit lead-off hitter or a fantasy starter. He's a young guy and he definitely has the potential to become a stud, but this year isn't the year. Hermida was one of the guys that a lot of people were saying was going to have a breakout year, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Lefty's usually take a bit longer to hit their stride against major league pitching, and he certainly has the power and eye in the box to succeed, but I feel it'll take much longer than a lot of Fantasy owners are hoping for.

I like your John Baker pick at C, I think he'll continue to produce nicely throughout the year, but you may also want to look into someone like Rod Barajas for when Baker inevitably goes cold again/has scheduled off-days.

Drop Phil Hughes. Immediately. Two straight starts of getting shelled doesn't bode well for the former first rounder, and Cashman is reportedly accelerating Chien Ming Wang's timetable to get him back in the lineup and send Hughes back down to WSB. He'll be in the Bigs for only 2-3 weeks longer, tops, but he should be off of your team long before then. See if Chien Ming Wang is still available, I'd pick him up if he were. You have to be careful with him though, and I'm not talking about his previous starts. He's been doing great in his rehab starts so far, but Wang isn't the sort of pitcher that K's people or misses bats for outs. He's a contact pitcher, and he relies mostly on GB and FB to get his outs, and this has worked well for him in the past, but with how the new NYY stadium has been giving up HR so far this season, a contact pitcher like Wang suddenly becomes a risky prospect. However, the upside is is that his mechanics are improving, and the specialist he saw for his hips is the same one who helped A-Rod come back as early as he did. Wang has the potential to be the W machine he was just two seasons ago, but be aware of the fact that his contact pitching style is going to give up the long ball probably more often than you'd like.

Also, another pitcher that has been completely killed this year is Ollie Perez, but I wouldn't drop him, I'd either bench him or DL him if you have a spot availible. Although the patellar tendonitis is usually a cop-out injury that's given as an excuse to DL a struggling pitcher, I feel that in this case it is actually legitimate. Perez's delivery was really strange when he was on the mound, and his mechanics were completely off. If you can find a YouTube video of him pitching in '09 and compare it to him pitching in '08, that his right leg is buckling at the knee during his release and follow-through, something that would definitely be caused by something like the weakness and stiffness in the knee that patellar tendonitis can cause. Now that they have it diagnosed, I feel that proper treatment and rest during this DL trip will fix the problem. However, no one has any idea when he'll join the Mets' rotation again. If you can spare the space, I'd hold on to him, but you'd also probably be just as safe dropping him to waivers since I doubt anyone would claim him, but keep an eye on his rehab progress. Ignore those who say he'll come back in the bullpen - there's absolutely no need for him there, and they already have lefties like Feliciano setting up and Billy Wagner will be back eventually too. Perez will be back in the rotation, and if he's healed up when he is, he'll bounce back for a good amount of wins and crazy K/9 ratios. It's just a matter of whether or not you're willing to wait.

Also, you might want to look into shopping David Price in trades or honestly just dropping him. He's completely lost his control this year and can't seem to get the ball across the plate anymore. He's been throwing way too many balls and his K/BB ratio is almost an even 1. This is very bad. His ERA and WHIP are also a lot, LOT bigger than anyone could have guessed, and if this continues there's no way that he'll get the call before the All-Star Break.

As for everything else, I really like your lineup. You have good strength top to bottom and great depth everywhere except for SP, but the starters you do have (other than those I mentioned) are definitely serviceable fantasy pitchers. You've probably had some trouble up to this point just because your key players like Tulo, Wright, and Figgins have gotten off to relatively slow starts, but all three seem to be picking it up and you should cruise from here on out. Best of luck to you, and I hope that my suggestions help you in some way. If you wouldn't mind returning the favor, I'd really appreciate it - viewtopic.php?f=29&t=384532

Albert Pujols is to baseball what Jesus is to religion. He's better at this than I've ever been at anything in my life. He's better at this than you'll ever be, at anything. Pujols has a gift.